DVD Santa Problem

[bosscheech]

I am trying to convert a mini DV of some shows I;ve filmed to DVD. I am using DVD Santa for this. My problem is that after I check the video that DVD Santa has captured from my cammie, the video is terribly out of whack. The first few seconds play, then the entire video freezes. The audio will play, but very slow, i.e., vocals are tuned down and drums are incredibly slow.

I have tried both the "Capture" and "Play and Capture" options, and neither has made a difference. What is the problem? Any help is greatly appreciated.

[DanielG]

It sounds like you are trying to convert to MPG2 directly from the video camera. You need a powerful computer to do this and it looks like that your PC can't handle it...

SO...

Use a program like WinDV ( http://windv.mourek.cz/ ) to transfer the video from your miniDV camera to your computer and then feed the .AVI file (resulting file will be 13 gigabytes per hour) into your preferred MPG2 encoding program (in your case dvdSanta)

[bosscheech]

Yes, that makes sense. I just assumed DVD Santa could do this.

So this WinDV program will bring the video file onto my PC in AVI, then I should put the AVI into DVD Santa?

[DanielG]

So this WinDV program will bring the video file onto my PC in AVI, then I should put the AVI into DVD Santa?

Yes, that's right. Try with a short piece of footage first and then if everything goes okay, then import the whole concert.

[bosscheech]

That did the trick................sorta.


When I import from my cammie, WinDV made the video into 4 clips, not 1 file. I put them through VideoReDo, which joined them, but there is a short "clip" where the vids were joined. Is there a way WinDV can import in one file?

[DanielG]

Is there a way WinDV can import in one file?
Yep. Click on the "Config" button and set the "Max AVI File Size (frames)" to a large number.
NTSC runs at about 30 frames per second (it's actually 29.97)
Maximum number of minutes on a minDV tape is 120

So, 30 * 60 * 120 = 108000.

[bosscheech]

Thanks Man! I'll try that today after work.

[bosscheech]

That did the trick. Thanks a ton, Man!

[DanielG]

No worries. Glad you got it sorted out.